The boredom of Champ Champ

[WolfPackHunter]

I must admit that I am bored stupid of a contender getting a title shot, winning the title and instantly calling for a fight with the champion above or below. I have an easy fix for this, write it into the rules if you win the belt you must defend 5 times before even suggesting a Champ vs Champ fight. We have it with Suga wanting Topuria, Islam wanting Leon, Patan talking heavyweight yet all have huge challenges at the weight they won their title.

Does anyone agree to the 5 defenses rule or do you just want potential super fights regardless of the work put in by challengers in each weight class

 

[HHJ]

No they will never ever ever do this.

They arent gonna make rules they dont want to follow.

If they did that they wouldnt have Conor with two belts. They are never gonna hamper themselves with these rules. If they dont want someone to move up they simply wont offer them those fights. These champs can say what they wanna do all they want,but they aint gonna get it if UFC dont want them to.

 

[Herwald]

Personally, I don't give too much of a fuck about belts, I'm just in this for fun match ups. But it does feel like the champ champ wad is getting chucked into living bolivian at this point. Doesn't seem that special anymore. Meanwhile you have only 3 title defenses as the max at LW. Seems like getting to 4 would be the legit impressive feat in that division. BW defense record is 2, JFL doing champ champ fights there.

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

I must admit that I am bored stupid of a contender getting a title shot, winning the title and instantly calling for a fight with the champion above or below. I have an easy fix for this, write it into the rules if you win the belt you must defend 5 times before even suggesting a Champ vs Champ fight. We have it with Suga wanting Topuria, Islam wanting Leon, Patan talking heavyweight yet all have huge challenges at the weight they won their title.

Does anyone agree to the 5 defenses rule or do you just want potential super fights regardless of the work put in by challengers in each weight class

Instead of calling out champs in a different weight class and putting the rest of the division on hold, let's just bring back open weight fights!

 

[EndlessCritic]

The UFC is and always has been run as a benevolent dictatorship. And this has historically been a good thing. Aside from GSP vs Silva, the UFC made pretty much every fight the fans wanted to happen.

 

[sdpdude9]

I’m over it too. It used to be the ultimate achievement. Now it’s kind of turned into champions looking to take shortcuts and have a free title fight where they don’t risk anything. I don’t think there should be a set number of defenses before though, it really just depends when it makes sense. But it should certainly be something reserved for few. UFC will do whatever they deem best for business though, so don’t expect them to adhere to any strict rules.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

The UFC much like Sherdog.. beats shit into the ground until you’re sick of it.

Like threads just like this.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Triple Champ is the real wave

 

[RockyLockridge]

Does anyone agree to the 5 defenses rule or do you just want potential super fights regardless of the work put in by challengers in each weight class

As much as i love the Idea of firm rules typically.... I gotta say no to this one.

the fight game has all sorts of crazy circumstances which need to be accounted for at all times. Rules like this would exist only to be broken when those crazy circumstances occur.


IMO the one facet of the UFC that needs firm rules and guidelines to stick by is how interim titles work, when they are created and what it means to have one. That one is all over the place.

Personally, I don't give too much of a fuck about belts, I'm just in this for fun match ups. But it does feel like the champ champ wad is getting chucked into living bolivian at this point. Doesn't seem that special anymore. Meanwhile you have only 3 title defenses as the max at LW. Seems like getting to 4 would be the legit impressive feat in that division. BW defense record is 2, JFL doing champ champ fights there.

I know champ champ fights started at pretty Much GSP vs Penn II, But do they really happen that often?

Yeah I suppose there were 2 last year with Volk islam but only one of them was booked.

GSP vs Penn 2
Conor vs Alverez
Nunes vs Cyborg
DC vs Stipe I
Cejudo (for a vacant) vs Morales
Max vs Dustin 2 (Also for a vacant)
Izzy vs Jan
Volk vs Islam
Volk vs Islam 2 (late injury replacement)



I think thats all of them unless I missed one or two, Taking GSP/Penn out of my sample, in the post conor era (9 years ago now) Champ champ fights have only happened 7 times, not sure if we want to even count Max vs Dustin or Cejudo vs morales, but if we do it's only about once every 16 months it happens.

By OP's metric, only Volk vs Islam would have happened. is that what we really want?

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Yeah, it's getting tiresome. Diva like behavior. Just defend your belt and quit clogging up / retarding the divisions.

 

[HHJ]

Yeah, it's getting tiresome. Diva like behavior. Just defend your belt and quit clogging up / retarding the divisions.

This is the atmosphere after Conor had both belts. That it's something you could do to raise your profile and get bigger fights.

So I can understand fighters wanting to do it,but it also derails divisions,allows for ducking etc.

More often than not its more of a problem than a benefit for the sport as a whole. This isnt like boxing where there is alot more weight classes and alot more sanctioning bodies for each title,thus alot more activity going on...and where inactive champions are stripped.

Fighters are trying to work in that system,but in MMA its still very iimited and the UFC controls everything in their own sphere.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

I forget who said it, but...

...it's a cheat code to legacy. Whatever that is.

And until a majority of fans agree with OP, fans will buy the PPVs and so UFC will keep doing it.

"We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us".

So next time you (dear reader) cream your pants over some underserved title shot, just remember where it gets us.

 

[Levi_]

They need to just put them all in the ring at once to solve the problem.

 

[Local Plata]

Even worse now, when lots of these guys getting title shots in the first place don't even work their way up the divisional rankings, let alone clear out the division.

 

[SuperNerd]

Tired of your bitching aboot it.

Give us what we want, when we want it.

I'm tired of hearing about hypothetical fights that could be held up in theory IF, a champ vs champ fight happens.

If there is a better fight than champ vs champ, give us that.

Simple.

UFC caters to the paying causal.

 

[GoWokeGoBroke]

you’d watch. I know it. You know it. Champ champ knows it, casuals know it, hardcore know it, pornstars know it, and UFC knows it. And that’s all they give a fook about

 

[RockyLockridge]

Triple Champ is the real wave

Rooting for poatan to be that guy.

 

[nostradumbass]

I don't know if a single person who has moved up for a 2nd title has had 5 defenses, and it's a "rule" they could break whenever they want because there usually aren't 5 interesting defenses in a division, especially if you've taken out several on the way up.

I don't think Islam has "huge challenges" at LW. Anything can happen in a fight, but he'd be at least a 4-1 favorite over everybody in the division. I've always been an advocate of making fights with close betting odds, so if there is a "super fight" that has pretty close odds, it's not that bad to book the champ for a super fight and book an interim fight on the next card, and the lower champ can agree before the fight to relinquish the lower belt if he wins and make the interim for the real title, or he comes back to unify if he doesn't win.

 

[Deleted member 585708]

"Super fights" that cross divisions, in most cases, should be like Holloway vs Gaethje.

No titles on the line, just two bad asses competing.

Once you're a champion, you're locked in to a division.

If you wanna jump divisions, vacate.

Champ-Champs should be an impossibility.

 

[HHJ]

Champ-Champs should be an impossibility.

It never will be,in any fightsport, as long as the fight draws money. We're kinda stuck with it, forever. Good thing that just because every fighter winning a belt wants to do it, dont mean UFC will let them.